The Arc System Works tournament Arc Revo America has ended, and with it brings a lot of announcements for the future of Guilty Gear Strive and more.
The character was announced in the final first season of Strive, and it’s not what most players expected. The goth, scythe-wielding testament is back with a minor redesign featuring a new vest, ruffled jabot and top hat. As in previous iterations, “The Elegant Grim Reaper”‘s attacks have a longer reach and are now familiar with demons to support them in a fight. Testament hasn’t been part of a Guilty Gear roster since the Guilty Gear Accent terrorized competitors in the Core Plus R, but whether they’ll be just as effective in Strive remains to be seen.
The release of the Testament will coincide with the arrival of a new phase, the White House Reborn. Set on the grounds of the Presidential Residence of the United States of America following the events of Strive’s story mode, the building is being rebuilt and “has already been restored to its position as the center of government.”
Strive players will only have a short wait to get their hands on Testament and the new White House Reborn phase as they will be available for PS5, PS4, and PC Season Pass owners through March 28, and for purchase la carte only on PC . , PlayStation players can purchase these separately on March 31.
Digital Figure Mode is also coming on March 28, which allows players to place characters, furniture, effects and more in scenes that can be shared with others online. Character facial expressions can also be changed, image filters can be applied, and camera angles can be changed to add even more creative control to the mode.
While it was announced to coincide with the final character release of the Season Pass, the story mode expansion will be released by the end of April. Titled “Another Story”, this new narrative experience will focus on characters that were not revealed during the original story mode.
All of the above wraps up the season pass for Guilty Gear Strive, but that won’t be the end of new content coming to the game. Arc System Works has announced that a second season is in the works, with four more characters coming to Strive in the future. Cross-play between the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC versions of Strive will be added at an undetermined date, with additional features including improved server connection times and network stability for online mode. There’s no word on when season two might begin because it’s clearly too early, but it’s great to know that support for the game will continue.
Finally, Ark Revo will continue with the return of Ark World Tour, a global tournament series that has not been active since the start of the pandemic. Guilty Gear Strive will certainly be a main game in the competition, but the upcoming Arc System Works game DNF Duel will also be a co-headlining of the series of events. The addition of DNF comes in partnership with Nexon, owner of Dungeon Fighter Online IP, which the game is based on, which will sponsor Ark World Tour 2022. Competitors who win the regional World Tour event will qualify for the World Tour Finals and have the opportunity to fight for part of the $200,000 prize pool ($100,000 for each of the two games).
Arc System Works is one of the companies included in the upcoming Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable, which takes place very early on Monday morning. You can learn more about the event here, where we can hear more from the developers about Testament and Guilty Gear Strive’s future plans.
Are you excited to get your hands on a testament? Which characters would you like to see in season two of Guilty Gear Strive? Tell us in the comments!
